


The Interview

by AsterRoc



Series: Pepperony One Shots [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Extras, F/M, is this a curtain fic?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-13
Updated: 2014-03-13
Packaged: 2018-01-15 13:28:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1306582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsterRoc/pseuds/AsterRoc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper Potts’ first day temping at Stark Industries.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Interview

**Author's Note:**

  * For [APgeeksout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/APgeeksout/gifts).



> Sorry it's over the 1,000 word limit, but it's an extra so maybe that's okay?

When the temp agency sends Pepper to Stark Industries, they don’t even tell her what she will be working on, only that she should dress nicely and be prepared for anything. She wears a light blue pencil skirt, matching blazer, white silk blouse, sensible heels, and her hair tied back in a conservative ponytail. She feels ready for anything. 

She is not ready to sit in a reception area outside an office where someone, well two someones actually, are clearly having vigorous sex. The tedious waiting for no clear reason is occasionally punctuated by a hand slapping into the horizontal venetian blinds on the insides of the glass windows of the office. Pepper jumps every time, and resolutely does not turn to look. At least the temp agency guarantees payment for this entire afternoon, even if it ends up being a dead-end. 

Forty-six minutes after her arrival, a distinguished older gentleman whom Pepper immediately recognizes as Obadiah Stane strides into the room looking as if he owned it. Well that was fair, he nearly does. Without even looking at her he barks, “Get me coffee!” and then sits himself down on the most comfortable looking chair in the room: at the receptionist’s empty desk. 

Pepper jumps up, purse on her shoulder, and hurries to the next room over where she recalls having seen a coffee maker. As she walks in, there is a young man who looks like he must be an intern, and Pepper takes this as a godsend. With a quick glance at his name tag, Pepper politely askes, “excuse me, Peter, do you recall how Mr. Stane likes his coffee?” 

“Black, no sugar,” the intern replies quickly, and then looks at her. “I don’t think we’ve met.” 

“Pepper, I’m new, from the temp agency.” She smiles and shakes hands with him as the pot finishes percolating. Pepper finds a large mug in the cabinets, fills it just enough below the brim that it won’t slosh as she walks, and hurries back to Mr. Stane. 

He barely acknowledges her as he takes the coffee. Three minutes later, he stands up in irritation, plunks the empty mug down on the desk, and this time turns to face Pepper, though he does not raise his eyes as high as hers. “Tell Tony I had more important things to do than wait on his sorry ass,” Mr. Stane declares, and stalks off. Pepper blinks a couple times, but finds a “while you were out” notepad on the receptionist’s desk and writes down Mr. Stane’s message. She considers that maybe this is what she was supposed to be doing after all, serving as receptionist, despite no one having told her so. With a shrug, Pepper sits down at the desk this time. 

Another thirty-two minutes later she hears a loud curse from a male voice emanating from the office behind her. It is not a curse of someone having sex, but a curse of someone who discovers something horrible. She then hears female sobbing. A couple minutes later the door finally opens, and Tony Stark himself whirls out. He is already a few steps past the outer door when he turns back, points a finger at her, and says, “Take care of that,” then quickly whirls away from her again and turns the corner out of her sight. 

With some trepidation, Pepper turns to the office where she sees a half-dressed woman crying. She has zero patience whatsoever for histrionics, but she figures this is now her job, at least for today, so she plasters on her game face and walks in, cooing soothing noises, and fishing a Kleenex out of her purse. Ten minutes later Pepper walks the anonymous woman towards the CVS on the corner to buy some Plan B and a pregnancy test, while she is on the phone with a gynecologist making the poor woman an appointment for STD testing. Fifteen minutes after that, Pepper is hailing the woman a cab, and then she returns to the same reception office she sat in for over an hour while Tony Stark had apparently screwed some random woman whom he referred to as “that” rather than by name, even after the condom had broken in the middle of the act. 

And of course, in the most comfortable chair in that reception office sits Mr. Stark himself. His hair would be artfully tousled if Pepper hadn’t known that it was tousled due to sex. His beard, or maybe it’s a goatee, she isn’t really sure, is trimmed to perfection, and she suspects he has it professionally done twice a week. He wears an expensive suit over a T-shirt from some hard rock band, AC/DC perhaps, though the name is partially faded and partially covered with grease stains. Pepper is more than a little annoyed with him, and she convinces herself that is why her pulse races as she makes eye contact with him. 

However, he is now apparently her employer, and since she wishes to keep working, she expresses none of her annoyance and instead says, “Mr. Stane was looking for you around an hour ago. He said, and I quote, ‘Tell Tony I had more important things to do than wait on his sorry ass.’ Would you like me to reschedule him for another time?”

Mr. Stark looks her up and down. She does not know what he is looking for, though she keeps a look of expectant waiting on her face. “No, that’s okay,” he finally says, looking her in the eyes once more, “he’ll come back if he cares.” 

She nods. “And would you like me to make you an appointment for an STD test?” 

He looks sharply at her, apparently surprised she would be so blatant in her suggestion. Then he slowly nods in approval, though he says, “No, I can do that myself. But tell HR I’ll be keeping you; they should put you on permanent payroll. And give you a credit card and an account. Congratulations,” he says, extending his hand to shake hers. “You’re now my personal assistant. What’s your name?” 

“Pepper Potts.”

“Well welcome to Stark Industries, Pepper Potts. I think you’ll fit in fine, like part of the family!” He turns on the charm, putting his paparazzi grin on his face, but Pepper can see a little crinkle in the corner of his eye that she thinks is actually genuine. She smiles back at him. 

“Thank you. Will that be all Mr. Stark?”

“Yes, that will be all, Miss Potts.”

**Author's Note:**

> Some ideas for this had been bouncing around in my head for a while, and this was a good opportunity to put them down. I still want to do more with this – I was originally inspired by the _Iron Man 1_ scene with Tony’s/SI’s flight attendants and the stripper pole, I wanted Pepper trying out for that and then Tony or one of his other staffers discovers she’d be much more useful as his PA – so I may someday do a rewrite or expansion, but this is what came out when I decided to bang it out quick. Thanks for the request that reminded me of it, APgeeksout!


End file.
